Vintage Nigerian-Inspired 'Palm Wine' Beat Tapes From Lo-Fi Odysseys

With the first two volumes of his five-part Palm Wine BEATS series, Nigeria-rooted, London-based documentary photographer/creative producer Daniel Oduntan aka Lo-Fi Odysseys presents moving musical documents highlighting Nigeria's 100 years as a nation. Mixing songs by some of the country's greats — Fela Kuti, The Lijadu Sisters, King Sunny Adé, William Onyeabor, amongst others — with American tracks from the likes of Minnie Riperton, as well as vintage Nigerian news and political clips, these compilations form a fearless love letter to the West African nation.

Speaking about his project in an e-mail with Okayafrica, Oduntan states that he wanted to "look more into [his] nations history from the viewpoint of the diaspora." He adds:

"[I] Just wanted to crate dig my heritage like a hip-hop DJ would dig for jazz and soul samples and present it in a way that others could access, relate to and find fun... Palm Wine BEATS is my tiny attempt, a small scratch an introduction. VOL 1 touches on the popular vintage sounds of Nigeria, it's people, humour and problems that mirror todays. VOL 2 looks at the formation of Nigeria by the British, The Biafra War, Nigeria's early relations with America, and the many problems and painful memory's that have arose from this time."

The legendary South African writer on storytelling, losing Bra Hugh Masekela and his hopes for South Africa

Zakes Mda, endearingly referred to as Bra Zakes, is a South African literary giant. He is the exemplar "jack of all trades, master of all"—a professional 'dabbler' as he refers to it. An accomplished novelist, playwright, poet and painter, he has written close to two dozen novels thus far, including the beloved Little Suns, Ways of Dying and The Heart of Redness. He is extremely hilarious as an individual and never afraid to speak his glorious mind. Case in point:

"Some random guy claims he has lost all respect for me because I hold a different view from his on a specific issue. I'm trying hard to recall what his respect has done for me lately or ever did."